Recipe Review: Indian Spiced Carrot Soup with Ginger

We had a bunch of carrots to use this week and were craving something Indian-inspired. It being Escapes Month and all, this soup from Bon Appétit sounded like the perfect recipe to celebrate far-flung locations and exotic flavors. Read on for our full review...

The process of making this carrot soup is pretty much identical to our own technique for how to make soup from almost anything — sauté carrots and onions with some spices, pour in chicken broth, simmer, then purée.

One big change we made was with the spices. The recipe calls for whole coriander and mustard seeds, which you grind yourself. We're sure that would have resulted in more vibrant flavor, but we don't have a spice (or coffee) grinder, so we substituted ground coriander and some dry yellow mustard, which was fine. The major players, for us, were the ginger and curry.

Two things that were crucial: lime and yogurt. You add lime zest to the vegetables as they cook, then a big squeeze of juice at the end. The citrus completely made the dish, taking it from creamy and warm to bright and complex. The other key was the yogurt garnish; the soup definitely sang with that tang (!). So if you don't miss those last-minute additions, you're in for a treat.

One other note: We had a hard time getting the carrots blended with our immersion blender. The recipe says to transfer the mixture to a blender, and it might be a quicker process and a smoother result if you do.